Each Day Is a Gift

Think I'm coming down with something, sore throat, swollen glands, achy neck, fatigue.  The thunderstorm kept me up.  Ran 7 miles down and up the rail trail with Carolyn and Karen.  I probably would have bagged the run if weren't for them!  My legs were lead, felt crummy, hacked up copious gunk!  So disgusted with myself! :(

Hubby had to sweep the rain water off the floor of the new addition (which has no roof yet) a second time this morning.  Yesterday he had to sweep the rain water in between his meetings.  He put the white tarp (which was supposed to keep the floor dry but didn't) on the lawn to dry, big mistake.  His beautiful lawn was fried, it now has a 50'x50' brown patch, so sad!  He has such a good attitude...never gets mad!  It is now past 10am and I haven't seen or heard from our contractor!  He was on vacation last week while his helper did the demolition alone Tue-Thu.  It was a good thing I told him to not take out the outside-wall, as it is, the hole they made on the existing roof in order to join the new addition's walls have caused rain leakage inside.  So, this has been 4 weeks and we've seen more *destruction* than construction, very frustrating!

No running today.  Woke up feeling achy, with sore throat, lotsa icky mucus and very tired. Called the doc. for an appointment but he was on vacation.  

Since I was a *sore throat* case, I was seen by a PA student.  The MA swapped my throat.  This was the conversation I heard outside my exam room.  PA student: "So, you are doing the strep test?  You know how?"  MA: "I've done it before."  PA student: "It's the sore throat in that room."  some laughing...joking....5 min. later.  MA: "How come all the strep tests I've done come out negative?"  The PA: "Cause you didn't swap all over the throat."  MA: " I did!...it's negatory!"  

Pause...then the PA came in and told me it's probably viral, but he had the PA student emailed an order for an antibiotic to the pharmacy anyway and said I could take it if the symptoms get worse (after being told that my son was seen by the doc on Fri and diagnosed with Strep.).  

So much for going to see the doctor!  I didn't get the antibiotic.  I still have a cough, icky sputum, sore throat, all manageable.  I think the mountain air at PC will do me good, don't you think?  

Feeling no better or worse.  I just had to go for a run to loosen up the mucus and keep from getting insane!  Ran 7 with Karen.

Busy busy busy day helping with the funeral of my next door neighbor who passed away last week of brain tumor.  The service went on for almost 3 hours.  It was very nice to learn of some of the things about him as I didn't really get to know him since they moved here last summer.  He had brain cancer 7+ years ago, went through chemo and surgery, thought he was all better, until a few months ago it came back with a vengeance.  His youngest daughters are 8 & 9 so the last 7 years was a gift.  I feel so sad for his 38 yo widow.  She is amazing!

Busy in the evening with the wedding reception of a wonderful young lady in our ward.  This is 2nd of 4 wedding receptions within a week.  Hope I didn't spread any germs. :( 

Promised Wendy I'd run 4 with her...so, ran with Karen, Wendy and Carolyn for an EZ 4. 

Still have sore throat, icky thick sputum, cough...but NO fever...so I am not taking any antibiotic.  I figure if it is virus, antibiotic doesn't help.  Saturday will be day 6 from start of the symptoms so I should be fine to run.  I may still have the cough but I will take my inhaler if I start having difficulty breathing.  Hope I'll finish PCM ok.

Update on the construction: more destruction of the existing roof so they can put the trusses on for the construction of the new addition's roof.   This afternoon, they hired a giant crane (the kind that you see in major industrial construction) that has a humongous mechanic arm that reaches over 150' high.  It loaded and dropped the heavy 26 foot long wood beam in place across the new addition.  I now have vision of a roof over the new addition!  Here's to more construction than destruction! :)

Going to pick up my PCM packet tonight.  You think they will let me run with a hecking cough?  They let me run SGM with a fever the year it rained the whole race!  :)

PCM was the FUNNEST long run ever!!!  Karen picked me up at 5am, then drove Becca and RAD to Park City where we met up with Teena.  Went inside the hotel to stay warm, use the bathroom and meet up with Lowell.  2 min before start time, *the pod* (consisting of Lowell, Bec, RAD, Teena, Karen and I)  walked out to the start line.  Within 10 seconds Teena left us in the dust and disappeared with the lead pack.  *The pod* ran together picking up new friends (Terry, Erika, Bill, Tara...) along the way and just thoroughly enjoyed each others' company with big lies and jokes.  :)

Temp was in the high 50s but quickly warm up as the sun peaked over the mountains. We waited for each other at each aid station, hydrated, ate oranges, visited with the volunteers...  A strong side/headwind whipped up from mile 7 on.  I had taken 2 puffs from the inhaler at the first aid station and by mile 10 started to cough and wheeze.  My bladder was filling up quickly, stink!!!  We reached the aid station around mile 12.  There was one guy waiting for the ONE pop (he said he would be quick).  We were annoyed when the person finally came out of the pop turned out to be a woman volunteer!!!  She walked 5 feet from the pop to her car.  What the heck?!!!  The grocery store is just a block off the trail...GRRR!  I urged our group to go on ahead...but RAD refused.  She and Karen waited with me holding my Gu's for me.  What great troo bloo friends! :)  THANKS girls!!! :)

Hubby was picking up Karen's husband and kids at 7:30am to come cheer us along the course.  I told him it would take us at least 2 hours to get to the half way point.  I started looking for him on the Rail Trail.  When I didn't see him at the first road intersection I hoped we'd see him at the end of the Rail Trail.  Sure enough, I could hear Karen yelling "Mark!  Larry!  Mark!  Larry!" just as we reached the aid station on Bonanza (about mile 13.5).  They had just arrived 10 seconds earlier and were crossing the road to get to the aid station.  Had it not been for the 3 min pop wait a mile back, we would have missed each other!  :)  We lingered for pictures and loitered around the aid station.

*The pod*: Karen, Becca, Lowell, Smooth and Rachel.  By the stop sign are Karen's husband, Mark and daughter, Abby.

We must've eaten 8 lbs of oranges between us! :)  Oh, it felt so good for my sore throat!

 My favorite part of the course is on Poison Creek Trail along city parks with tennis courts, trees and fun tunnels.  Lowell stopped to goof off with a group of ladies doing exercises in the park, silly boy!  Rachel and Becca began to take the lead up the climb to Deer Valley.  My least favorite part of the course was running on the sidewalk on Deer Valley Dr. from mile 15.  But it was redeemed by the fact that you could see the fast runners running down on your left.  It was AWESOME to see Teena flying down (would've given her a hug but didn't want to interrupt her momentum!:-) )  Also saw some friends, BrentZ, but didn't see Slick or Marcie like I would in years past.  I also saw and cheered on the two ladies, Sue & Margaret, in my age group.  

Running up the Deer Valley loop was not bad at all (thanks to taking the inhaler as suggested by RAD at the half), although I wished they had wash clothes for us like they had in the past.  Looked forward to getting to the top where I know our cheering squad (Larry, Mark, Brad, Max, Beth, Abby and Gracie) would be.

We made it!  Notice the guy running with ski poles?!!  He came to Deer Valley prepared!  Dang, I left mine at home!  :)

 Here comes *the pod* reaching the skiers' bridge just before the last climb up to Empire.  We had lost Lowell somewhere in Deer Valley.  He stayed with Tara! 

Here we were loitering around at mile 19 aid station again! :) So many choices of food and Gu flavors!  We were told the Expresso was the best for the end of the marathon!

What? We have a marathon to finish?!!!  :) :) :) We'd better get going...

But not until we got a couple of *jump shots*! :) :) :)

On the trail again!

The paparazzi's are everywhere! :)

We were SO grateful for the cloud covering between mile 17-23.  But was now getting hot with a full sun beating down and a warm south headwind.  The last 5K in a marathon is always work.  This is Karen's 2nd marathon.  At mile 24, she started to feel the effect of the miles but also felt so much stronger than her 1st marathon at SLC.  With one mile to go, my shins started to cramp up, probably due to wearing the Elixir.  In the last 4 PCMs, I had always feared succumbing to cramps on the winding narrow bike path that hugs the condo.  There seems to be never-ending corners to turn with no sight of runners ahead or behind.  But this year's different...it was so AWESOME to run side by side with Karen drawing strength from each other.  The guy with a sprinkler hose was another blessing!!!  With 100m to go we saw darling Abby and Gracie who ran with us to the finish with the cutest, happiest smiles ever!!!

The fun resumed at the finish and carried over to Cafe Rio! 

Post-run assessment:  Thanks to my SSF's giving me the inhaler at the finish, was able to get the coughing and wheezing under control!  Knee held out okay.  Shins would need some rolling.  Need to recover well... Pocatello is in 2 weeks!!! :)